Long ago, back in my former life as a teacher, I saw that same thing several times. I had a kid who was pretty bright but never accomplished anything. Not hyper but never attentive. Never completed assignments, test, homework. One day, he started volunteering answers in class, taking notes, and his grades quickly shot up. No, he didn't seem stoned, he seemed alive finally.
I had several just like him over the years. I see less like that, so I am sure the meds are doing well for them.
I talked to his mother a few weeks later and she mentioned that he was on the med and asked me how he was doing. I was able to tell tell her when he began.
I had another kid who was just like him a couple years later who didn't want to take any medicine. He accomplished little in his classes.
Exactly. My senior year, I ended up with the two most dreaded teachers in the school, in English and Math. I was the top student in both classes, and for me the work was nearly effortless. After a while the math teacher even had to tell me to stop answering so many of the questions he posed in the classroom, so other students might have a chance to catch up (I usually ended up having to answer anyway, because so few others in the class were able to keep up with the level of work he demanded).
In college, the discussion days for my History course usually devolved into me vs the TA, with everyone else staring blankly, and I lost at least two roommates because I never had to study extensively even for difficult courses, and they couldn’t manage their studies with me relaxing around the house.
It always drives me crazy when people start spouting off about how the whole ADD thing is a scam or con and a way just to push unneeded drugs on kids. It’s not, or at least not only that. Some of us really need them.